It was close to forty minutes of travelling in winding tunnels before Thorne lowered his palm. He dropped to his knees breathing heavy.
“Sir?” oakham asked.
“We’re here” Thorne said his voice sounding dry and cracked.
“We’re at the base of whatever contraption they have; I followed the sense of plasma bugs, this tunnel exits into a much larger one in about a hundred meters.” Thorne clicked the comm. over to just the sergeant “I’m no use for the next five minutes, how long would Aasiths reconnaissance be?”
“A few minutes” Oakham replied, listening to the strength drop completely from Thorne’s voice he understood now what was turning the Major’s hair grey.
“Aasith, reconnaissance, find out what we’re up against. Morrigan, Medb, we’re going to need to get higher try and see if there is a tunnel going up. The rest of you, eyes and ears open. Move out!” Thorne ordered his voice with some measure of strength forced through.
“Yes Sir!” The reply from the unit and they all moved out with purpose. Eastre moved down to beside Major Thorne
“Do you need anything Sir?” She asked drawing her med kit round
“Not that you can supply me with.” Thorne replied hoping the smile carried through the comm. Eastre put her hand on his shoulder and nodded, then stood and moved off scanning the tunnel. Oakham moved to within his vision and tapped the side of his helmet. Thorne switched to signal channel between himself and Oakham.
“Well done sir. Not sure if you see this as a compliment, but somehow they all see you as one of them. A Trooper.” Oakham said, he still had his reservations but so far the amount of command he has given was increasing and Oakham’s trust in him was growing as well.
“That is most definitely a compliment. Thank you sergeant” Thorne replied, his voice coming back to normal. He saw the grey-white shapes of two troopers coming up. Their forms identical using night vision. Thorne nodded to Oakham who returned the gesture.
“Major Thorne!” Morrigan called
“Morrigan, report.” Thorne replied, he started to feel himself now, the prolonged use of his sensing skill wearing off, he could feel his legs again which was a bonus.
“No tunnels exiting this one other than the one where Aasith has gone or back to the surface sir” Morrigan replied
“Sir. I have a way up and I have seen their contraption. You’re not going to believe your eyes” Aasith stated through the comm. After a brief exchange the entire unit moved to Aasith position into the central chamber.
The area was gargantuan. There were no bugs moving around the area, but as Aasith pointed out there were three rows of one-hundred plasma bugs all dug into the ground with only their firing end exposed. The marvel was what was in the centre, three sections of perfectly clear crystal; two shaped like a diamond and the third a sphere in the centre with four equal distanced projections, each terminating in a flattened sphere. One diamond was point up with the central sphere balancing on that and then the other diamond with its point on the sphere. This was held in place by a ring of metallic ore that had various bridges attaching it to the walls. The area was open to the sky, it was the central canyon of the mountain they were within and it had been remodelled by the bugs to be a cone shape within, the base being the point.
“I’ll be completely honest. I have never seen anything like this in my life.” Oakham said into the comm.
“I doubt anyone has, I think we can turn night vision off” Thorne replied
“Orders sir?” Nabu asked, his voice sounding hyperactive.
“We need to see how this works just in case we are recovered. I believe those strange bugs are the key and if we know how... then when they are found elsewhere, M.I. will know what is nearby.” Thorne said over the comm. he was inspecting the area. There were hundreds of tunnels above with no access points to the walkways.
“Where are all the chariot bugs?” Luk asked
“That is a very good question. Orders, Nabu and Eastre you stay low, take Luk’s missile rocket launcher and when I give the signal fire the nuke into that crystal. The rest of us, we’ll go up the wall using the lizard lines. I want us to be half way between the metallic level and the roof, there seems to be a band of area that’s not penetrated by holes at that point. We’ll dig ourselves in there and watch. Do you get me?” Thorne said and found himself enjoying that line.
“We get you sir!” Black Zero-One responded in unison. Luk handed over the launcher and rocket pack to Nabu and Eastre; then the rest of the unit looked up the wall and began their climb assisted by the repeated shots from the lizard lines. Thorne waited till the unit was on the wall and then he set his comm. to a private channel to Eastre.
“Eastre, he seems a little fraught. Make him calm and make sure he waits till my signal.” Thorne said calmly
“Yes sir.” Was the swift response
Thorne began to climb the wall, he was watching the disturbed rocks as they fell away scattering on the ground, he’d see a plasma bug stretch but other than that their movement was going unnoticed. Once they reached the chosen point the dug in foot holds and turned round, lizard lines holding them in place while balancing against the rocky wall with their boot heels.
“Now we wait. From this point on zero noise or comm. traffic, eyes open. Only break comm. silence if we are under direct fire.” Thorne said, there was no response, he didn’t want one, there was a theory that some of the arachnids could pick up and understand comm. signals, personally he didn’t believe it, but there was no point taking the extra risk.
They began to wait.
The twenty minute warning shone on his HUD, same as it would across the unit, no one responded to it, another six minutes passed and then they saw the herd of chariot bugs come in. They were entering on the metallic ore, hundreds then thousands of them pouring in. They head to the centre of the crystal platform. They made a small mound then spread out in a wave, bug holding bug, they locked onto each other and spanned the gaps between the different walkways making a solid carapace of the gap below.
Eastre watched as legs grasped each other and the chariot bugs created their single layer. Everything entered and even darker state than within the tunnels. Darkness absolute. Eastre and Nabu reinitialised night vision. The central diamond crystal was giving off a faint glow. It was slightly warmer than its surroundings; then four of the plasma bugs began to glow. Light erupted pure white, arced briefly and struck one of the flattened spheres each. The central crystal began to move, the ends glowing with energy that had been fired within. The pair changed from night vision as the plasma bugs each in turn began to fire. Thought of as slow and cumbersome when trying to hit the fleet vessels they were anything but inaccurate now. Each shot from one of the three-hundred plasma bugs found its mark against the flattened spheres and perfectly balanced crystal began to spin ever faster trailing and storing energy produced by the bugs.
While the plasma bugs were firing the rest of the unit were witnessing the death of the carapace shell. They’d seen the arrival of the hoppers and ripplers doing the same feat, turning the area into complete darkness with their bodies, with night vision re-initiated they witnessed the new arachnids come out to feed. Hundreds of holes produced hundreds of crystal spikes, each one fired into a chariot bug. The crystal shafts began glowing as the chariot bugs were drained in the same manner that Nabu was. Thorne looked up and saw more crystal shafts fired upwards not hitting the ripplers and hoppers but more chariot bugs being dangled down. Thorne could see that the ones being held down were part of a pattern and realised that was the targeting method. The weight of the shards pointing a specific way would channel any energy in a singular route for the faster than light travel to take place on.
Heat began to increase beneath the centre of the chariot mound, energy was accumulating below, he knew soon it would fire and he understood how the set up worked at least he believed he did. It would take fine tuning but the concept was complete.
“Lock and load.” Thorne said over the Comm.
“Sir we have a problem” Eastre said over the comm.
“Explain” Thorne said watching as the infra red intensified.
“We can’t get a shot we’re getting drawn into it as if its pulling us in.” Eastre replied
“Get yourself stable and take the shot as soon as you can. The rest of you...” Thorne stopped as he heard scrabbling below. He’d missed the warriors waiting at the cavern doors watching and somehow they now knew of the units presence. “Black Zero-One open fire remove as many crystal stems as you can I’m going to by you some time. Eastre get Nabu to take the damn shot!” With his orders said he hit full retract on his lizard line and dropped pistol aimed at the oncoming warriors firing, shifting his weight so he’d land on one of the ore bridges. He drew his pistol and took aim; the warriors halted their progress as this man dropped towards them. Their indecision past as he opened fire, each round rupturing a leg, carapace shattering and then the bug loosing grip off the wall to fall to through its comrades.
The rest of the unit sprayed fire from their rifles towards all the crystal shafts shattering them for a cascade to fall on the chariot bug husks. The spiders scattered but the hoppers and ripplers stayed in place holding their cargo awaiting something. The crystals began to sparkle and shine with their own light as the muzzle flare ignited a reaction within.
Thorne had emptied his second clip, and although he was aiming for the ore platform and warrior bug had taken position to catch him, its mandible extended wide ready to snare, crush and bite. As Thorne approached the target it suddenly exploded, the front of the mandible snapping free from controlled morita rifle burst. Thorne didn’t have time to look back or respond, his boot hit the lower mandible with force and jumped to land on the husks of the chariot bugs straight through to the ore bridge; he bent his knees and rolled forward letting the inertia fade away. He turned to face the bugs, new clip housed into his pistol, he then saw own of his unit finishing their slide. From the machetes, he knew it was Olwen. He opened fire, round after round it to the thorax of the warriors gaining their attention and double shot into the same warrior and it turned sideways on the wall toppling back. Olwen copied Thorne’s manoeuvre and used the arachnid as a step to launch herself onto the walkway. Thorne continued to fire, changing clips as fast as possible. There was a cracking sound and sudden light pierced the black cavern, the husk had collapsed at the side under the strain of the warrior carcasses. The entire husk cracked and began to fall away allowing more light into the area, filters automatically changed on visors from night vision to tinted to protect the eyes from the glaring black light.
Eastre had a lizard dug into the ground, the plasma bugs were still firing and she was amazed that they were still hitting their target and suddenly they all stopped in unison.
“Take the damn shot Nabu!” Eastre shouted at him. He struggled to raise the launcher in place while Eastre held onto him and the lizard line. Every plasma bug shifted slightly and began to glow as they charged for another shot.
“Target locked!” Nabu said
“FIRE!” Eastre shouted.
The rocket launched and so did all the plasma bugs, the wave of energy from three hundred plasma bugs slammed the pair into the ground but the pull of the bugs machine brought the missile up high, it impacted on the spinning sphere they watched as the explosion bloomed and was then absorbed into the machine, tainting the blue white light orange.
Thorne’s pistol clicked the final time. He was out of ammunition and moments lately Olwen’s did the same a moment later. The warriors charged, shattering the remaining husks as they ran.
“I maim, you kill” Thorne said to Olwen, she drew her two machetes and reversed the handle in the right hand. Thorne twisted his prosthetic wrist and three large blades sprung out and locked in place.
“Charge!” Thorne shouted sprinting forwards, boots pounding. The five minute alarm sounded in his helmet. He had five minutes to kill as many as he could. He slid down one knee ducking under the first warrior and he sliced his blades through all the right side’s legs, as the warrior collapsed, he jumped back to his feet using the enhanced strength from the suit he kicked the mandible of the following warrior, the chitin shattered as the warrior tumbled backwards. Olwens blades glinted and spun in the light; she sliced through the eyes of the first immobilised bug and then looked for her own target. She watched as the next flew backwards scattering the swarm with some falling from the bridge.
Oakham saw Major Thorne and Private Olwen beginning a hand to hand combat with the warriors most had diverted to that fight. Most of the crystal spears had been reduced to splinters. They heard the impact of the missile below but no real explosion. Oakham looked down at the incoming warriors, he let go of his rifle letting the sling hold it to him and began pulling grenades out of his belt. He unpinned two and dropped them, the warriors tried to scattered but the blast ripped the rock apart and showered them with shrapnel. He then began to throw them towards the diamond in the centre. Each grenade arced smoothly to begin with then streamed straight towards the top, he watched as each of the grenades he thrown exploded and had their energy absorbed. He stopped at five realising they were not making any difference and instead began to hurl them straight down at the warrior swarm below.
The diamond in the centre kept intensifying; the entire unit had not broken the mechanics. Thorne realised as he fought on, there was only one action left to destroy the device. Destroy the bridges.
“Nabu fire any missile you can at the metallic bridges take them down!” Thorne shouted over the comm. all of Black Zero-One heard the order and most of them had less than two minutes left of a functional power suit.
“Understood.” Eastre was handing a standard missile over. Nabu locked in place and fired towards the closest one. They watched as the missiles direction changed; the pull of the device stronger than the missiles engine. It hit and the walkway exploded.
“Not the one I’m one!” Olwen shouted over the comm.
Thorne and Olwen watched as multiple explosions plumed. First a series of small grenades from Oakham above and then the missiles erupting beneath blowing huge chunks of rock into the air along with warrior bug both whole and in part. The walkway shifted and time slowed for Thorne.
He’d felt these moments before, time slowed and he could perceive everything and he knew what to do. He could see the slant of the walkway and the miniscule cracks as they formed along the bridge towards the ring. He knew what to do; he could see the unit spraying rounds above at the ripplers and hoppers as they fled, the pulsating energy in the diamond crystal, and the timer in seconds for power shut down. He saw the energy flow and swim, the calm blue reaching a crescendo as it was attacked by the angry orange of their attacks. He was certain his next order was the right decision for the unit to survive.
“Everyone to the diamonds top!” he shouted into the comm. The moment he felt time revert to normal. He turned and began to run up the collapsing walk way. There was no time for Thorne to watch as the next volley from the plasma bugs slam into the central diamond or see how the energy in the spinning ring began to coalesce and pour into the central diamond.
Nabu and Eastre both fired their lizard lines into the wall face and ran upwards using all their strength to try and not be sucked into the device. Pulling up the lines as best they could they reached as high as possible, they could see Olwen and Thorne already standing on the platform watching the progress of the rest of them, Black Zero-one had used their last jump jets and were landing on the crystal, the top diamond had begun to list as walkways crumbled away. Eastre and Nabu braced themselves and launched forward. Nabu used his jump jets from the beginning whereas Eastre waited until he jump began to arc down and engaged them. Nabu dropped early he wasn’t going to make it.
“Nabu!” Eastre shouted. She watched as he plummeted back down to the ground below, the unit holding tight onto the crystal power suit fingers crushing the crystal. As Eastre watched all three hundred plasma bugs fired once more, their shots straight into the base diamond, a single shot catching Nabu as he was in flight vaporising him with energy that can destroy fleet battleships.
Eastre landed badly not watching her descent, but Nabu’s demise. A hand shot out and caught her by the wrist. As the top diamond tilted, Thorne saw that some of the crystal was still in front of them. The last plasma burst streamed through the crystal structure to the central sphere, spreading out to each terminal, it glowing pure white. A single shot to each terminal the opposite direction to movement and all the energy flooded into the device. Pouring into the diamond crystal the unit was hanging onto, a ball of energy formed engulfing them all into pure white light.
They didn’t feel the movement when the last of the energy entered the sphere, or its final release as it hurtling out of the canyon gathering energy and moment from the remaining shards of crystal, it streamed towards the expectant asteroid but disappeared into the ether before contact.
Thorne watched as everything turned white, briefly he perceived a view of stars, then nothing in an absolute sense, then a spiral galaxy, then pain. Reopening his eyes he looked down at a hard metal floor, his powersuits counter was in the red, the air registered breathable. He flicked the face plate to open and he was assailed by the smell of metal, oil, and chemical fire. The deck plate was cold. Then another sharp pain in his back and he was pinned down. His head began to swim, he knew he would faint. The last thing he heard was an aggressive voice say.
“Rebel Scum”